At her CrossFit gym in Geelong, Richelle “Rocky” Cranston smashes out a set of pull-ups without breaking a sweat. She swings herself up to a bar well above her head in one try. Cranston can push herself up from a headstand to a handstand several times in a row, then walk on her hands.
She is strong, formidable, witty and very friendly. She doesn’t look like someone who is battling chronic kidney disease. “When I first got diagnosed, I figured it couldn’t be that bad,” Cranston says.
“I felt great at the time. I didn’t really understand what dialysis was, either, or how bad it was going to get. I was a bit blase about it.
” When Rocky was first diagnosed, she felt ‘great’. Picture: Hamish Blair Cranston was an AFLW athlete, having played for the Geelong Cats and Western Bulldogs over her eight-season career. A powerful forward-midfielder, she didn’t know anything was wrong until she suddenly lost vision in one eye.
“I was at footy training,” the now 35-year-old says. “They sent me for some blood tests, then I had to get urine tests, then I was in hospital for a week and a half. It got worse and worse from there – a slow decline.
“My kidneys were at 22 per cent (function) and it was stage four of kidney disease, but I still managed to play four or five years of footy after that point. “I did everything they told me to do. You have to not have protein, which is so hard for an athlete.
I couldn’t have Hydralyte because of the potassium. Basica.